elaine

I don't want to create unnecessary paranoia, but I thought I would mention this. As you know, part of posting a message here is providing an email address. Additionally, there are some questions in this forum that have prompted some respondents to share personal information about where they were born, their age, where they live, what kind of work they do, etc. <BR>IF any of you are concerned, for whatever reason, about maintaining anonymity, please be aware that the Search feature of this forum allows for searches by <BR>"name". Such a search would turn up every posting that person has participated in, and the aggregate of that person's postings might contain more personal information than that person ever intended to provide. There are nefarious people out there who could conceivably exploit that information. Perhaps everyone already realized this, but perhaps not. <BR>elaine

martha

Are you sure you can search by name. I ask because at one point I was trying to find everything Tony Hughes has ever posted (because I knew he had said something nice and couldn't remember what it was) and neither his name nor his email address retrieved all his postings. Of course, that may be the result of some conspiracy in which he and Christina are engaged. What do you mean, "unnecessary paranoia"? <BR>

Maira

Elaine--- When searching by name, I think the only items this forum search mechanism will retrieve are the ones where that name is part of the message text. The word of warning is appreciated but to be honest with you, if somebody wants to do harm, it'll find the way... <BR>Martha--- Tony, the man from Edinburgh, can do no wrong as far as I'm concerned. Christina on the other hand...(just kidding!...one of those days at the office...)

elaine

<BR> Good point. So if we want to hex the search feature, we shouldn't be so polite as to include our names in the messages, not even in the closing. <BR> I am sorry to tell you both that my concern was prompted by Tony. Recently he pretended to have remarkable intelligence and insight, allegedly evidenced by an attempted personal profile of me which he presented in his posting. I couldn't help but wonder why it is so important to him that he present himself as amazingly insightful. He is not just a non-conformist or a curmudgeon; the presumption, egotism, and obsessiveness of his posting as directed toward me, offended, nay, scared me, which I'm sure pleases him no end. He was of course wrong on every detail about me except those few which could be found in some previous postings I participated in. <BR> When I ventured this current posting I did not want to make it about specific indivduals, I just wanted to share something that I wasn't sure everyone already knew. And Tony, if you're thinking of starting up with me again, and I'm sure you're just itching to, it should be clear that I will not engage.

Maira

Elaine---I am so sorry, I had no idea...I hope the light way in which I responded to this thread did not conveyed to you that I didn't take your concerns seriously. <BR> <BR>I hope that your concerns are properly addressed by those involved....

elaine

<BR>Not at all, I always enjoy your remarks.

elaine

<BR>Not at all, I always enjoy your remarks.

Tony Hughes

Elaine ....allow me .... <BR>If I was stalking the internet trying to frighten people then i WOULD NOT use my own name nor email address, I would use an anonymous one from hotmail or whatever. <BR>Interesting you may be, but there is no danger I was going to trawl the depths of Fodors looking for information on people ....What has been said has put me in a bad light. I can mail you with my deductions (wrong they may be) but this has escalated from nothing. Next people will be running after me shouting 'witch'. I apologise if you got spooked but there's no need for this ...